brighten your day

About Me

Hello! Thank you so much for visiting me in the Attic, it's lovely to see you. My name is Lucy and I'm a happily married Mum with three children. We live in a cosy terraced house on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales in England which we are slowly renovating and making home. I have a passion for crochet and colour and love to share my creative journey. I hope you enjoy your peek into my colourful little world x

Awards

Favourite Crochet Blog & Favourite Crochet Designer

Facebook

Instagram

Amazon Links

If you shop at Amazon, and there's an entry for your country, you can help support my blog by using these affiliate links ::

♥ buy me a coffee ♥

Hello!

October 30, 2008

On The Menu :: Lentil and Peanut Bake

I love to make various Bakes at this time of year, I like the warmth and comfort of them very much and prefer them to stews or casseroles. The thing that bakes have over casseroles is melted cheese :: for me, the sight and smell of golden, bubbling, melted cheese provides one big huge dollop of comfort.

And I love lentils too, in particular red/orange lentils. I think they are such an underated ingredient :: they are extremely nutritious, versatile,
tasty and economical, which are four supremely good foody adjectives if you ask me. I am always on the lookout for lentilly recipes, and this one is an absolute star. It's a combination of several different recipes I've accumulated, a sort of hybrid-recipe, and I've been making variations of this for a great many years - since my early twenties when I left home and first began to cook for myself. When the Little People were Little Babies, I weaned them on a pureed version of this (minus the peanuts), much to the delight of my Health Visitor who was more used to new Mums using jars of baby food.

Heat oil in a large pan and fry the onions for 5 minutes or so until soft.

Add the celery and carrots and cook for a few minutes more until softened.

Stir in the lentils, herbs, tomato puree and stock and bring to the boil.

It smells wholesome, looks wholesome, a bit like soup at this stage.

Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring every so often.

Add in the other vegetables (chopped courgette, mushrooms, peppers), give a good stir and continue to simmer for a further 10 minutes or so.

By now it should be thickening nicely :: keep an eye on it in these last stages, stirring a bit so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. You need to be aiming for a thick, soft consistency, it can't be too runny or it'll end up like slop, yet it shouldn't go too dry and overcooked either.

When you think it's almost there, add in the peanuts (roughly blitzed/chopped) and stir a few mins more. Taste at this point and add seasoning, but go steady on the salt cos the peanuts are quite salty. Incidentally, you can make this recipe without the peanuts, but they do add a delicious texture to the bake that I find irresistible.

While all this is happening, you should boil your potatoes, skins on, and thickly slice. And here's something to consider :: trying to slice hot boiled potatoes is foolhardy and painful. Ouch. Make sure they have cooled somewhat before attempting to slice, or you might end up having a tizz. I have been here many, many times.

Pour the lentil mixture into a shallow oven proof dish, and arrange your potato slices over the top. Sprinkle with grated cheese and pop under a hot grill until the cheese has melted and the potatoes are golden brown.

This is real Autumn comfort food, wholesome and hearty. In our house this week it scored about 8/10 with the Little People (there was some griping about the "green bits" aka courgettes). So not bad for an ultra healthy offering of homecooking.

But wait up folks, theres more to tell. This recipe is so very versatile you see.

Another variation you can try is to alter the liquid content. So instead of 600ml of stock, try halving it to 300ml and adding a tin of chopped plum tomatoes. Cook in the same way, but for not quite as long (and perhaps without the peanuts?) and you end up with a gorgeous lentil bolognese mixture, perfect as a pasta sauce, or dolloped onto crispy jacket potatoes.

And there is even more :: if there happens to be any leftovers, throw them into a blender with a little water and blitz it to make a really delicious soup.

Little Lady and I had this soup for lunch yesterday and it was fabulous. Really fabulous.

Hope you give this one a try, I do get enormous pleasure sharing the Attic24 recipes with you and hearing about how it turned out in your household.

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Definitely believe that which you said. Your favorite reason appeared to be on the internet the easiest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get irked while people think about worries that they plainly do not know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and also defined out the whole thing without having side-effects , people can take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks

Shell, try sweet potatoes?
I made this in December when needing a comforting, make ahead dinner after having a baby. My vegetarian brother loved it when I then made it again for him and it's on the menu this week only without the cheese as I'm off dairy at the mo.

So yummy I always go back for seconds; think I'll have to double the quantities!

Wow! as a confirmed, devout meat eater, I had this at my sisters house the other day and it was really gorgeous! Can definately recommend you give it a whorl!
I'm a type two diabetic and wondered if, instead of using cheese, I could use Feta or 1/2 fat cheddar. Has anyone else done this and what was it like?
Secondly, though New Potatoes are low GI, if I wanted to be really good, would Globe Artichokes work instead?
Going to give these two changes a go and will let you know how I get on.
Lucy, keep up the frugal recipies if they are all like this, more people will benefit. Ta. Love.

Lucy I am endebted to you. My autistic daughter who is so finnicky with food Loves this recipe Really LOVES it!
Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou.
We are vegetarian and it is generaly Sooooooooo difficult/impossible to persuade her to eat heathily (Protein, Iron etc.). This has done the trick
Bless You
p.s. I Love it too.

I imagine that a meal round at your house Lucy would be the most warm, cozy, and delicious affair............. a fun filled evening..............
Just as an aside, I was wondering if you got the e-mail I sent you? I haven't heard back from you, so I was wondering if it got lost in the ether..................

Good morning, lovely Lucy! I will definitely try this...anything with potatoes suits me just fine. By the way, tonight I am making your Sweet and Sour Sausage recipe again....it is so yummy. Have a great day....oh...and when you make muffins....the trick is to NOT over mix after adding the dry ingredients.

I have a general posting-recipes-on-blogs question: do you post other people's (I'm thinking cookbooks rather than granny's) recipes or do you not because of copyright? I never know so I don't. Just wondering.....I wasn't sure who to ask about this so I've started with you!

I too LOVE lentils - hangover from my vegetarian days at college. A big favourite in our house is Lentil Chilli with brown rice. For my little man I put some into another saucepan before I add chilli powder and fresh chillies to the main batch. Then melt in cheese and he has cheesey lentils, which he loved as a baby and still loves! Lentils freeze really well so I always make a huge batch and get it out of the freezer when required. I also cook extra when having tea and bring in the leftovers to reheat at work.

I am really fancying this recipe. Some nice green beans on the side and some crusty bread and a glug of red wine to drink would finish this dish off nicely. I think I may know what I'm cooking tonight! Thanks Lucy!